Ecologists are warning MSPs that Scotland may have to accept "significant intrusion" from wind farms.

It is likely also that nuclear power will be needed for possibly several decades.

Sepa predict that the two methods will remain as energy sources until climate change is under control.

Experts studying the seas off Scotland's west coast have already forecast more devastating weather of the type which caused havoc across the country last month.

Wave heights

They predicted that damaging storms will become more frequent.

Researchers from the University of the Highlands and Islands and Southampton have been looking at wave heights in the Atlantic over the last nine years.

The project was conducted jointly by the Environmental Research Institute in Thurso, which is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Millennium Institute network, and the Southampton Oceanography Centre.

Scientists carried out a series of studies, including the use of satellites to assess wave heights in the seas around the west coast and the Hebrides.